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Friday, March 24, 2017

Hello.. Been some time, I have been off. Nothing much to write about I guess. Although recently something has happened that has brought me back to writing.

It has a lot to do with the relationship between doctors and patients, and the growing mistrust. And it has something to do with apathy of the government towards it or the lack of sufficient infrastructure for health.

In my line of work as an Emergency doctor, I was in constant flux with unruly patient and their relatives. I got man-handled, received death threats and all that. I tried talking to my seniors and all they had to say was that I was the one who was highly qualified and better educated. I couldn't break down so easily. I had to be the one able to handle my patient and their attendants effectively. So.. I tried..

But let me tell you, it is tough. Considering the workload on each doctor because of the abysmal doctor-patient ratio, as humans, it sometimes becomes impossible to take the stress. And to top it when government fails in providing sufficient infrastructure, it is the doctor who receives the blow standing in the front line. How? Let's examine what is happening in Maharashtra.

In a place called Dhule, a person met with a bike accident. He was rushed to the nearest hospital. The first doctor they met told them that the patient was a case of head injury and since the hospital had neither a CT nor a neurosurgeon, it would have been best to take the patient somewhere the facilities were available. The relatives didn't take kindly to that and started beating up the doctor. The doctor sustained severe injuries on his skull, chest and elsewhere. He is also reported to have lost his vision on the one eye he was injured.Here are the details.

It didn't stop there. Supposedly, the relatives, who assaulted, were jailed, and one guy committed suicide in custody. And the relatives wanted to file a case against the doctor for that, too.

Next was some news about residents being beaten up at another place in Maharashtra, Sion. This particular resident got slapped by a patient's relatives. This is his story about the incident.

Episodes preceding this incident and following this incident led to a huge cry by doctors there for their justice. A thread on twitter has been posting regular updates on the cases.

So, while the residents doctors were on strike, the senior doctors took over to fill in the gap as much as possible. But some people can be so incorrigible. One relative allegedly assaulted a female paediatrician, whose statement can be seen here.

Doctor in Maharashtra took to the street protesting, while those outside supported the strike on social media. Various tweets and posts on Twitter and Facebook could be seen.

Elsewhere doctors were suspended. It's a total chaos. The one place you seek justice, threatens you. A simple demand of increased security is not being met by the government.

On the other hand, many patients were suffering too. They were caught between this fight between debilitated doctors and apathetic government. Some 58 patients were reported to die during this strike. Everybody now blames these deaths on doctors.

Some senior doctors have tried exploring the problems. They have some well written articles on the web:

Update: Seems like the strike has been called off to an extent. Although the protest continues.

Looks like the political parties are playing their roles too. Details here.

I hope the matter resolves as much as possible. But it has not been eliminated yet. This rabbit hole goes deeper. The growing mistrust between doctors and patients is a social failure. Each one of us has to work towards a better society where everyone can live as healthy as possible. The mistrust needs to be ameliorated. Health is a joint venture, not the sole responsibility of a doctor.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

My first
Nokia mobile (personal) was Nokia
2600.. The time when color-screens were like COLOR-SCREENS!! And the mobile
also had POLYPHONIC RINGTONES!!!! Capitalized words to emphasize the excitement
added to it.. A pretty decent mobile.. Used it for about 2 years…

Next, I
bought the Nokia 6600…
Now, that was some mobile.. I will never forget that mobile… Used it for 2 years.. It was more than
just a mobile to me.. Powered with Symbian version 2 operating system, it was
the first smartphone I had.. Although there wasn't much to it, a small VGA
camera, and GPRS (not even EDGE), it was a phone that didn't have much to offer
per se.. But thanks to the developers, the number of softwares that were made
available for this mobile were innumerable.. As long it was under warranty, I
used it with scrupulous honor, but as soon as the warranty period was over,
there was nothing where I didn't stop.. I changed my mobile into a device!! The
things I could do with the device can be enumerated as follows:

Download and play .mp3 files
and .mp3 ringtones. (the device wasn't able to do that per se.. Had to use
softwares, like PowerMp3 or Winamp

Play .avi movies and videos
using Smartmovie
Player.

Banking using iMobile by ICICI Bank

Ticket booking and shopping
using ngpay

Internet Browsing. The home
browser was horrible. I used Opera Mobile 2 and Opera Mini 4. After that I came across UCBrowser5. UCBrowser was the best browser for
that mobile.. My Internet Browsing experience had changed dramatically! I
could download files and upload files without much trouble!!

Unpack .sis files and compile
them as a backup according to my own taste and likings.. There wasn't much
of a "security" to those mobiles back then.. There were some
notorious viruses around, and the best thing to avoid them was not install
any unknown file (especially those received randomly via bluetooth). Apart
from that, there wasn't much threat. Although being a medical student, I
still managed to compile one software from 2 different sources (the
original was in Russian and another one to convert it into English), and
compiled it for others and uploaded on Mobile 9 here. Everything was done using my mobile.. No computer was
used in the process..

Also had successfully
installed KasperskyAntivirus that updated regularly and did scans successfully too..
(checked by installing viral software deliberately in the mobile). Never
paid a single money..

Used it as a remote control
for my computer's music player via bluetooth.

Controlled power point
presentation using the same function via bluetooth.

Made Words file, and excel
files using Quickoffice.

Played games like AssassinsCreed, Asphalt4, Pacman, etc.

Read Academic books in .pdb
format with iSilo.

Dictionary and Thesaurus
using MSDict.

Read Novels and short stories
using Wattpad.

Had installed an AnsweringMachine on the mobile.

Call recorder

FsCaller that showed the callers image
in full screen

And I am
not sure if the list ends there.. Like I said, it was a device that was capable
of so many things although maybe even the manufacturer may have never imagined!

My next
mobile was Nokia
5800 XpressMusic… Another mobile that was pretty good.. I still use
it.. If you did notice the jumps in the
type of mobiles I used.. From a simple colorscreen, polyphonic ringtone mobile
to a multimedia capable, internet browsing capable mobile to a TOUCHSCREEN
MOBILE (excitement intended)!!

Now that
was something.. 5800 gave me some of the awesome features like:

3.2 megapixel camera

3G and HSPA

Wi-fi

GPS

TOUCHSCREEENNN!!!!

And I
felt my dreams came true.. Mp3 ringtones, wifi, maps and gps, and everything
with touch.. The new OS was Symbian 60 v5 (s60v5). Also called Symbian ^1 ..
Although most of things were same as my most coveted 6600, but there were a lot
of security and illegal softwares were not easily installed.. But whatever was
offered was enough to want an illegal software.. The 1st few versions were
pretty glitchy for the mobile. When I bought it, it was v 20.. Soon after v 30
came.. Stayed with v 30 for a long time.. Then I got the v40 update and it was
a disaster.. Had so many issues I joined the Nokia Discussion forum and started
asking for help, as well as helping others.. Soon the v42 and then v50 and v51
were released and the mobile became very stable. The last update was v60 and we
were pretty disappointed. You can find me on the forum here..

After the
last update the service was discontinued and even the warranty was over..
Disappointed with the last update I kept trying to hack the device to make it
better.. The tries continued till I came across Symbian Anna v7.6 (later
updated to v7.9).. It is the best Custom Firmware that was released for these
type of mobiles.. You can find the review here..

I have
been using that custom firmware for quite sometime now.. Although new CFWs have
been released, I didn't find any if them stable enough..

I have
been using Nokia 5800 for past 5 years and it has been awesome.. Especially the
Maps and GPS. Have travelled a lot recently and GPS helped a lot.

If you
have noticed, all these mobiles that I have used have been
"discontinued". And it was time for me to step up the ladder and get
the next generation device by Nokia. But, before I could do that, Nokia was
"discontinued". Recently, Nokia started using Windows OS, which I
don't think compares to the versatility of a Symbian OS.. I will miss Symbian,
for I have used it for almost 8 years (which may not be much, but is enough to
be "used to" the concept)

Recently,
I heard Microsoft had bought Nokia. I hear a lot about Lumia and how awesome it
is.. But I don't think, they can be as awesome as what 6600 or 5800 meant to us
during that era..! So this post was in
memory of my years with Nokia..

Saturday, July 20, 2013

A patient
dies at the OT table. The doctors did what they could do. The head surgeon was
good to follow the rules by the book while he carried out the surgery. He has
no regrets. He did a good job. Other doctors agree. The operation was done
"by the book". But… the
patients is dead. And the relatives are furious. They want an answer
from the doctors.. They hate the doctors. But it doesn't matter… The doctor is
right in his place. And the relatives are in theirs.. But the patient is dead.

Such is
the case of NEET.. The lawyers, judges and the whole legal system did a good
job. They did what they could do best.. Dramatic arguments. Flowery,
nonsensical jargon. "Inevitable" delays. The judgement was long, but,
sound and constitutional. Its just that the NEET was the patient, and we are
the relatives..

I
scurried through the long tedious judgement given by the "Honourable"
judges.. All I could make out were as follows:

Religious
and minorities are allowed to do whatever they want according to some Article
30. Take their own exams, choose their own students, according to their
principles.. And when the question was asked, "To what
extent can professional
education be treated as a matter
coming under minorities rights under Article 30", respected Mr.
Salve replied, "… a
minority institution may have its own procedure and method of
admission as well
as selection of students, but such a
procedure would have to be fair
and transparent and the selection
of students in
professional and higher educational colleges should be
on the basis
of merit. The
procedure selected for admission by the minority institution ought not
to ignore the merit of
students for admission
while exercising the
right to admit students by the colleges aforesaid, as
in that event, the institution will fail to achieve excellence. The said
procedure should not
amount to
maladministration." [point 25]

I found
that line quite interesting (the one that I have highlighted in bold). It
seemed to me that these judges and lawyers were immune to what was happening
outside the Supreme Court..

One more
thing I noticed, although it might not be relevant to this, that most of the
articles were cited from the constitution were amended or made aeons ago.. 1956,
1964, 1976.. I saw one 1998-2000, but that was about the introduction of NEET,
and well, it is dead now.. Somehow makes me feel archaic.

Another
point that caught my eye was Mr. Parasaran's statement saying, "the
hard reality that emerges is that private educational institutions are
a necessity in the present-day circumstances. It is not possible today without them because
the Governments are
in no position to meet the demand,
particularly in the sectors
of medical and technical education, which call for
substantial investments and
expenses. Mr. Parasaran submitted
that the
impugned Regulations were
not in the national interest and would only
discourage good private
institutions being established by people dedicated to the
cause of providing health
care to all sections of the citizens
of this country
and, in particular,
the marginalized sections in the metropolitan and rural areas."[point
56]

Again, I
highlighted the points that interested me. Think of it, and you know how
pathetic it is. It's inevitable that private companies work on profit, and high
fees. Since Government has failed to fund the most important part of a country,
it's health system.. I have watched respected Dr. Gulati express his concerns
on the issue of privatization of healthcare as a primary cause of all the
corruption ever since his appearance on Satyamev Jayate, a show that was hosted
by Mr. Aamir Khan. But, I don't see anybody paying much heed to that..

Relevant
to this I would also like to quote an article titled "Amartya Sen: India's dirty fighter".
In it was written the following lines, "..
[Sen and Drèze] argue that India's overriding preoccupation with economic
growth makes no sense without recognising that human development depends on how that wealth is used
and distributed. What's the purpose of a
development model that produces luxury shopping malls rather than sanitation
systems that ensure millions of healthy lives, ask Drèze and Sen, accusing
India of "unaimed opulence". India is caught in the absurd paradox of
people having mobile phones but no toilets."

I tried
to look for the Financial aspect of the Healthcare and I was amazed to find the
data (which I have put in my post "Health in India".
And I am sure that anybody would be shocked to look at the data. Just 1% of GDP
invested by Government on health..

And then
again, I was also wondering if Mr. Parasaran was talking about theseprivate medical colleges, when he talked about discouraging "good private institutions"..

Inflation
and corruption are inherent to a Monetary Based Economy, thus the whole fight
seems pointless when seen from that vantage point. To most of us NEET had a
promise of something good, but it now has been destroyed under the religious
and minority humbug. But that's fine by me. I mean, even they have their
freedom, according to Article 30, or whatever. And using that as a cover, the
corrupt private colleges will continue to do all the "business" they
have been doing for so long.. And that would of course mean less of students
getting selected by merit.. And one may ask, "how is that fair??!!"
And the eloquent answer would be, "who said life would be fair!"

And
there's this another argument that MCI is not the proper body to be conducting
the exam, because the only things that an MCI can do…..well, are things that it
doesn't do properly anyway, so of course carrying out one unified exam would
be asking too much of it. MCI has had a past, with all those private
colleges scams, director arrested, etc... So now when MCI wants to do something
good, they are not being allowed to. So who is going to conduct the exam? That
question stays unanswered..

I agree
to one thing though. One cannot remove a faulty system and install another
faulty system instead.. NEET may have been a good concept, but the pattern of
the exam and the selection process was not proper.. Although people may argue
that even CAT and USMLE exams are taken in such a way, but it must be noted
that USMLE has 3 steps and CAT has the interviews.. Even these guys don't
solely depend on just the exam. So, NEET is just a half copied, incomplete
pattern, for a proper merit based exam, per se..

And
there's another set of arguments that exams on different days may cause a
different in markings and thus inappropriate rankings.. Tougher questions on a
day may lead to a worse rank and easier on others may lead to better ranks..
This, I think, is a myth. Even USMLE, CAT, Manipal, and many others follow this
pattern of online exam.. The Scaling is a bit complicated than one might
usually think. Of course, considering the weakness in Mathematics (for most who
had opted for bio), statistics could be bothering.. But a look at how CAT does the scoring,
perhaps, may give one an idea at the complexity. I remember some even went out
to do a survey with the DNB results to find out a co-relation, and never came
out with any positive result.. Even I have been a bit sceptic about this
method, but Mathematics, I know, is a strong tool, and can prevent any bias by
proper use of statistics.. As they say, you are always afraid of what is
unknown or incomprehensible to you. I have my faith with mathematics, and I
happily let go off the paranoia now. But, like said before, the exam alone
shouldn't be the deciding factor.

Another
argument is what if we miss the day of the exam, there's no other exam if that
exam is missed due to unavoidable circumstances.. Well, I guess the answer to
that would be a provision to take the exam on another day, provided valid
reasons are put, etc.. But then again these are methods of correcting the NEET
system.. These arguments, which SHOULD have been a part of the case, were not.
Because the case was about religious and minorities fighting for their freedom
and saying how India secularism, unlike American secularism is a "bowl of salad and not a melting pot".

Of course
there's a set of questions I'd like to ask..

Court in
2010 had announced that NEET will take place around 2011. But then AIIMS said
they won't be able to conduct the test, it was postponed to 2012. Where were
these private and minority institutes then? Why hadn't they put their case then
and there? Why wait till the completion of the exam in Nov 2012!!?? And if they
had made the case in early 2012, why had the case been transferred and delayed
till December 2012? What were they waiting for? Why harass the students? What
was the actual motive behind all this hullabaloo? Economic growth, was it? Empty Swiss accounts
probably?

As a
medical student, all I want is a fair
exam and admission to an institution, private or government, for my higher
education. And most would agree with me here. Even if the old system prevails
of AIPGMEE and state exams, and each of them had a transparent process of
examination and admission, no one would have any problem whatsoever. Its this
deficiency of a transparent system at the state and private exam level that has
caused this uproar from our side at least, that's what I believe. It's true
that India faces a shortage of doctors, but how does one solve that issue? Such
cases and harassment just make medical students like us wish we just get out of
this country, furthermore adding to the deficit. And the quality of medical
education just goes down day by day, making us inefficient doctors..

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Always wanted to become a doctor.. But all that stress of studying, slogging, giving exams, waiting for the results.. I couldn't take it anymore.. I wondered how my fragile brain could take so much of this humbug!! So, I decided to get my brain scanned.. And this is what I got!! Ah! Poor me!

Friday, May 10, 2013

Important: This post was based on a news that verdict has been delayed till 2nd July. Chances are that these were rumours. If it is confirmed that the news was a rumour and that results will be declared by next week, this post will be deleted. Thank you. [update: 10th May 6:00 p.m. IST]It makes
you wonder, the level of incompetency of an institution.

90,000
doctors (approximately) have given this "Dream Exam" called the
National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for post graduates, aka NEET-PG.
"Dream Exam", because it promised the students something that was a
rarity before it -- transparency and
standardization.

The
predecessor of this exam was known as AIPGMEE and had been scheduled every year
around 1st week of January. NEET-PG, on the other hand, was rescheduled to
November, i.e. 2 months earlier. This was nothing short of a harassment to the
hard working medical students, who had to re-plan their study schedules to the
new timetable!!

But our
woes didn't end there. Soon after the exams, a case was filed against the NEET
and the result were postponed indefinitely. The results were due on 27th
January 2013, and it's been over 3 months since. The case still remains short
of a verdict! And a torturous 3 months it has been for the medical students.
And now that all the hearings are over, word is out that verdict will be on 2nd
July 2013!!! Why? Because Honorable Supreme court didn't take up the case on
9th or 10th May, as had been predicted, and now the court goes for a summer
vacation! Seriously!!?? I, a humble medical student of this Incredible country,
want to ask you Honorable Supreme court, where exactly is the "Honor"
in this? "Justice delayed is justice denied" is not a cliché but a
sad truth in this case!

Medical
students across the country staged protests for stopping other State exams and
saving the NEET. #SaveNEETPG was trended on twitter to create awareness of the
issue. Numerous petition were written and signed on the internet. The case that
wasn't being covered by the mainstream media, started getting attention! And
there was a glimmer of hope that the verdict would arrive before the court went
for the summer vacation. Even the declaration of results of DNB kindled some
hope that NEET results were round the corner! But we were all deceived! The
case wasn't taken up on 9th or 10th May. Pleas for interim orders were made.
But the Hon'ble CJI "refused to
give interim orders on NEET-PG and the plea was rejected and announced that
NEET-PG/UG final verdict will be delivered only on JULY 2,2013"!

What does
the court expect us to do till then? Wait? With an abysmal Doctor-patient ratio
of 1:1953, the court plans to handicap the country's hospitals by depriving
them of 90000 doctors!?? Aren't the "Hon'ble" Supreme court and the
"Hon'ble" CJI aware of the way they are incapacitating an already
handicapped Health care system of the country!? Do these delays in verdict
have any well-educated logical reasoning? Or, is it just incompetence? Summer
Vacation? Is this a joke? Because it's definitely not funny. I trust the Court
will come up with a good judgment, but I beg them, pray tell the reason for this
unwanted, infuriating delay?

Cases in
the Supreme courts are moving slower than snail speed, or not moving at all.
And all the petitions and pleas, etc. are not even affecting the pace at which
these proceedings are taking place! It seems like Supreme court has zero momentum, and an infinite mass!!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Nowadays, people (including friends and family) ask me, "So, what are you up to these days, doctor? Which hospital? Are you a specialist yet?"; and all I can give is a wry smile and tell them about the situation of Indian medical education system and the NEET case..

The above question has entered the category where you don't ask a woman her age or a man his salary; or, in this case, a doctor about the NEET case/results!

Yesterday I saw a comment on my post by a concerned mother asking me about updates on the NEET-UG case. I gave her a site that I thought would help ease her stress, although in my heart I wanted to tell her to discourage her daughter to enter this profession.. I think most of my peers would agree with me.. Poor girl! She still has time to take a safer and better path! :-\ Such is the discontentment amongst medical students now..

Medical education is tough. Requires a lot of hard work. And its time consuming too! Tell me another graduation course that takes almost 6 years of study.. Most doctors dedicate the best part of their life to serve the community.. And this is how the government and corporates reward us.

It's all about money.. All about the profits. It's no more about the merit or honor or the compassion.. It's just "good business". And the business has become so good that every time I see a research by a doctor, I wonder, is this research transparent? Or, is it just another hoax to perpetuate a disease or situation to profit!? Health is no more the wealth, money is..

The idea of NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) became quite popular amongst most medical students.. It promised something that was a rarity before it -- transparency, standardization and increased seats.. Students got bored of the type of questions that were being asked in the AIPGMEE.. Students started studying more for exams.. The exam started becoming more crooked.. And the students started studying much more.. A vicious cycle that had led to the situation where the questions in AIPGMEE didn't make any sense, and students had stopped going to hospitals for internship and started going to coaching institutes to crack exams.. And then there was the competition.. AIPGMEE just had a percentage of seats from just the government colleges! And there were individual state exams. So, a student had to spend a lot of money and energy on filling numerous forms for entrance to different exams.. And all exams had different standards.. So, one needed to buy specific course/guide books for all these different exams.. And if you have gone through the above link on 30 billion dollar scam, you'd know that corruption was so deep that the exams were not transparent anymore (except AIPGMEE and some others).. So, there were people profiting from every part of this "business". Be it the politicians' private hospitals, or be it the authors of so many guide books and their publishers, and also the coaching centers! With NEET, all get stripped out.. The "business" goes kaput! I'd say a serious blow to a lot of jobs! With NEET there'd be one standard exam.. Students won't need to purchase so many forms and give so many exams. Just one transparent, standard exam.. And since all the colleges in India will have to give all their seats, there'll be an increase in number of seats and fairer opportunity. I agree, the exam that NEET took this year had very bad questions. But they could become better eventually. I also realized that they were not the usual bookworm questions. They were more practical questions. If NEET could actually inculcate asking such questions, won't it be good? Students would start going for internship, instead of cramming infinite knowledge for nothing. I think that would produce better doctors..

But then we have the NEET case.. It looks like some institutes are asking for their rights to conduct their own standard of exam and teachings. They are against this national standardization.. Yeah, one has the right to use their own recipe to make their own cake and the right to sell it in the market.. But this is making of doctors we are talking about, not the making of cakes, are we?

OK, FINE!! You filed a case.. Now what? Court is taking it's sweet time to give a verdict. A verdict was expected on 17th January, but the case is still going on, as of 18th April…. And still no verdict. This article was a call to the Health minister to look at the situation seriously.. But I am yet to see any effect.. But then something amazing happened!! Supreme court went on to drop the NEET case for a day to take up a rather important and critical (and I mean in the most sarcastic of senses) case on banning internet pornography. Check here.

Now there were some bomb blasts in Bangalore, as if the world was not already ending, and that too so close to some political party's place with elections near.. Damn these terrorists! Don't they get some other time or some other place! :-\

Anyway, life of most medical students, including me, have entered the doldrums. I, for instance, appeared in an interview out of the frustration of waiting for the results. Although I supposedly cleared the interview, I never got the joining letter after the medical check-up.. When inquired, was told that it was maybe due to my eye power.. Board regulations there was +/- 4 D. And I have -4.5 in one eye! Most other students have been asked to commit for 6 months or something to get a job, which they can't because of the delayed results.. So, no job, no results.. On the funnier side, I hear a lot of them are misplacing their admit cards for the exam!! Lol! Can it get any worse?

Some are of the opinion that maybe they won't give results this year. But that is not possible.. Let me tell you why. In medical post graduation one has to work in the hospital, and are known as Residents. PG is a 3 years course. So, apart from the consultants/Senior doctors who work in the hospitals, it's the Residents and nurses who actually do the mundane.. So, if you see, almost all hospitals are working because of the 3 year Residents in each department.. Now if results were not declared, there'd be no 1st year residents! And it’s the 1st year residents who do the maximum work in most hospitals. And usually 3rd year residents don't give much time because of their upcoming final exams. So, with no 1st year and no 3rd year, all burden will land on 2nd years.. All hospitals will become under-staffed!! And if that does happen, I won't be surprised if the 2nd year residents go on a strike because of increased work load!! Lol! And that will result a load on the senior consultants and 3rd years.. Maybe the hospitals would just stop… Phew! Nah! Don't think that's gonna happen.. They might delay results or might even give a bad verdict, but results are coming soon..

So, the question isn't whether they will give or not. The question is whether the verdict will be a fair one. It has become so hard to speculate at the moment!

Medical students are fighting for their rights. Trying to trend #SaveNEETPG on Twitter so as to make mainstream media to cover this issue.. But after covering the sting operation, media seems satisfied with the issue. Nobody wants to cover the issue.. We are writing online petitions to support the cause.. Have written 2 so far..

As it is the Doctor-patient ratio is very bad in India. There's shortage of doctors! I want to ask the Government, why can't they increase the number of seats? Why can't they open new recognized colleges? Why can't they increase the expenditure on health? I have heard if you ask them, they'll give you it in terms of Rupees and say ,"See, we have increased the expenditure".. But what they would not show or see that the %GDP used is still 1% by the government.. ONE PERCENT!!! And it's been 1% for ages!! Check my post "Health in India" for the data I dug out from WHO database. You will see the other countries I have compared with, have happily revised their expenditure and increased it!

Jacques Fresco, social engineer of The Venus Project, rightly said that you can't talk about ethics in a Monetary Based Economy. I think this is exactly what is happening. One may unearth millions and billions of dollars from Swiss accounts, and "scams" might become like "spam" in India, and 90,000 medical students might die trying to save NEET PG, but elites are busy making more and more money.

Whoever had said that the world was ending in December 2012, had a very shrewd sense of metaphor and cruel sense of humour with respect to the medical students in India.

Hoping against all odds that Supreme court may give a fair verdict and corruption might be decreased if not ended. Till then, we are fighting for our rights. If you are reading this, you might as well open the aforesaid two petition links and sign them. It doesn't matter if you are a doctor or not. Do help us win this fight against corruption.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Let me
tell you a story to chill the bones and it’s not the song Dance of the Death by
Iron Maiden.. :D

Recently,
a sting operation had uncovered the selling of medical post graduate seats in
India. Can you believe that? I was quite shocked.. No, not because I came to
know this for the first time that seats were being sold, but that the price
they were being sold at, and that seat bookings were done for the future as far
as 2016!!

CNN-IBN
covered it live the other day.. These guys went in with a camera and asked
these hospital people if they could get a seat in PG in their college. And
these guys happily told them that they could get whatever they wanted.. Every
department had their rate like some Continental Restaurant Menu card!
Pediatrics, Radiology, Medicine, Surgery, etc.. Up to ₹2 crores!! 2 freaking
crores.. 2,00,00,000!! That is ₹20million!! Approximately US$ 363,899! Donno
what they'd be serving for desserts though! And that's for one seat.. And then
perhaps there's some provision for early bird prizes, too! I mean bookings have
be done for seats up till 2016!! Advanced booking… Something like a pre-release
sale or something. Can you imagine how lucrative this business of seat selling
is? And the best thing is that they won't give a receipt.. So it's tax free!!
:D

And then
there was a lot of heated arguments of what the problem is.. And I think the
problem comes to just few of the following very important things:

Doctor-Patient Ratio: India has an abysmal, to say
the least, Doctor-Patient ratio. In my last post titled "Satyamev
Jayate" I had given the data of how for every doctor there is 1953
patients in India as of 2012. Thus, the number of doctors are very less..

Medical Institutes: The number of Medical
institutes are very less. There are 355 Medical Colleges in India.. Out of
which 161 are Government colleges and 194 are Private colleges.. With even
full turnover of doctors at 44250 doctors per year from these 355 colleges
the doctor patient ratio wont come down enough.. But that of course never
happens..

Expenditure on Health: The % of GDP used in health
services in India is 3.9% as of 2011!

Total %GDP expenditure on Health in India

And Government just uses 1% of GDP in health services.

%GDP expenditure on Health by Government of India

The above 2 tables show the data compared to some other countries..

Now why
won't there be corruption!

Every
student after completing their MBBS want to get into an MD/MS/Diploma course..
The total number of seats are 21282.. So, of the 44250 MBBS students per year,
only 21282 students get into a post graduate course! Not even 50%!! And the
expenditure on health by India is also very low!

What can be the solution to the problem?

Increase
the number of medical colleges. Increase the number of post graduate seats.
Increase the expenditure on health..

And in
India it is mostly seen that the private colleges are profit driven and thus
are corrupt.. India needs to open more and more government colleges. Indian
government should increase their %GDP expenditure on health from a meager 1.2%
to somewhere around 6%. Is it asking much?

Right now
this fight for getting into a post graduate degree is causing all the
corruption.. Like it's said, Scarcity increases profits.. Make seats abundant,
there'd be less corruption. No chance for making profits.. And moreover when
the expenditure on Health will be increased, Institutes won't be bankrupt to
think about profits through illegal means!

And after
that, even the education system needs to be polished, so that good doctors are
produced..